She has almost NO points to defend at all until Luxembourg (except for 2nd round in Brussels, 2nd round in 's-Hertogenbosch & 2nd round in Beijing). That's almost nothing & her ranking can only go higher.

Matter for what?
You mean that she won't be given 30 points for this week's Oeiras?

Yep. No 30 points for this week's Oeiras. That is correct.

On a more positive note though, Monica isn't in danger of losing points either if she doesn't defend the points she earned at Brussels or Rosmalen.

Basically Monica can't really lose any ranking points at all right through to Beijing where she has 1st round points (80) to defend. But she can only gain ranking points by winning matches at Madrid, RG, Wimbledon and the US Open or picking up in excess of 70 ranking points at other events.

I trust her that she'll do better than first round at least at the US Open this year.

She better damn well get substantial ranking points at both the US Open and Wimbledon I'd say. She is certainly capable of doing very well in both these events. But really Monica needs at least 1st round wins in all 4 of these events. The fact that in the 1st three mandatory events this year (the AO, Indian Wells and Miami) Monica has only picked up 50 points has hurt her chances at cracking the top 20 this year very substantially. Of course part of that was bad luck drawing Azarenka at the AO. And Flipkens and Hampton weren't easy opponents either but still....

Basically, anything less than a semi here and Monica has wasted a week in which she could have been preparing her grass game. I don't like this decision at all.

You're right. I forgot about the complexity of the ranking system.

However, I fully expect Monica to be ranked around #30 at the end of the year.

I can easily see her entering Baku or Tashkent this year again to gain more easy points. She has to make the best out of the clay season now, where I don't expect much from her in Madrid and Rome.
However, I hope for a great R1 draw in Paris, because those 100 points more or less can decide over of couple of ranking spots. Maybe she can also take advantage of a depleting field in Strasbourg, but as you said, she needs a SF to improve her ranking in that regard.

In regard of US Open and Wimbledon, I can see her beating nearly every unseeded player in the draw, but AO has taught me how brutal the randomness of draws can be.

Two years ago Monica was on a Romanian tv channel in the commentators box for Wimbledon's men's doubles final, as fellow Romanian Horia Tecau was playing for the title.

When asked about her less favourite surface she answered without any hesitation grass. She just said that she feels less comfortable on grass than on any other surface, clay included. And she was giving this answers just a week after a quick win for her over Sybille Bammer.

That's why her decision of not playing a grass tournament right after RG doesn't surprise me at all.

However, I fully expect Monica to be ranked around #30 at the end of the year.

I can easily see her entering Baku or Tashkent this year again to gain more easy points. She has to make the best out of the clay season now, where I don't expect much from her in Madrid and Rome.
However, I hope for a great R1 draw in Paris, because those 100 points more or less can decide over of couple of ranking spots. Maybe she can also take advantage of a depleting field in Strasbourg, but as you said, she needs a SF to improve her ranking in that regard.

That's exactly where I see her as well. Top 20 would be awesome, but is not very realistic.

Two years ago Monica was on a Romanian tv channel in the commentators box for Wimbledon's men's doubles final, as fellow Romanian Horia Tecau was playing for the title.

When asked about her less favourite surface she answered without any hesitation grass. She just said that she feels less comfortable on grass than on any other surface, clay included. And she was giving this answers just a week after a quick win for her over Sybille Bammer.

That's why her decision of not playing a grass tournament right after RG it doesn't surprise me at all.

Well she has to get over that attitude then. Because her game is ideal for grass. She just needs to play on it more to get a better feel of what works on it and how she can use that slice of hers to her best advantage on this surface.

When asked about her less favourite surface she answered without any hesitation grass. She just said that she feels less comfortable on grass than on any other surface, clay included. And she was giving this answers just a week after a quick win for her over Sybille Bammer.

I missed this one, but it's surprising, isn't it?

I can only explain it by the fact that most Romanian tennis players just can't build up any 'relation' to this surface. They play their first grass matches very late in their junior careers and afterwards maybe 3 to 5 matches a year and that's it.
It usually takes longer to really adapt and maybe even appreciate the specialties each surface offers to your game and grass actually offers a lot to Monica's game. If she had something that could be called 'serve', I would even go as far to say that she could be called grass specialist.

However, I fully expect Monica to be ranked around #30 at the end of the year.

I can easily see her entering Baku or Tashkent this year again to gain more easy points. She has to make the best out of the clay season now, where I don't expect much from her in Madrid and Rome.
However, I hope for a great R1 draw in Paris, because those 100 points more or less can decide over of couple of ranking spots. Maybe she can also take advantage of a depleting field in Strasbourg, but as you said, she needs a SF to improve her ranking in that regard.

In regard of US Open and Wimbledon, I can see her beating nearly every unseeded player in the draw, but AO has taught me how brutal the randomness of draws can be.

Allowing for a few exceptions here and there, I agree. Then again there are numerous players in the top 32 that I would also fancy Monica's chances against. Of course being unseeded Monica can always draw a really nasty seed 1st round and if that happens, that's that for advancing to the 2nd round. It just shows how important it is getting into that top 32. As things stand that looks a remote possibility for either of the summer slams. But if Monica can get some W's at those two slams she has a very decent shot at being seeded for the US Open. And once she gets into the top 32 she really ought to stay there providing she doesn't hit another big slump like she did last year.

I can only explain it by the fact that most Romanian tennis players just can't build up any 'relation' to this surface. They play their first grass matches very late in their junior careers and afterwards maybe 3 to 5 matches a year and that's it.It usually takes longer to really adapt and maybe even appreciate the specialties each surface offers to your game and grass actually offers a lot to Monica's game. If she had something that could be called 'serve', I would even go as far to say that she could be called grass specialist.

Totally agree. But even without a serve, grass suits her game simply because, like when she plays indoors, on grass her serve isn't quite the liability it is on slower surfaces.

And your 1st 2 sentences in the 2nd paragraph also sums up exactly why I believe Monica needs to take advantage of every week she can play on grass to fully learn how she can use this surface to her advantage.

The problem is that since I followed Romanian WTA tennis closer, there has never been one slam where at least one unseeded Romanian tennis player didn't draw a Top 10 player.

I only hope it's not Monica.

I remember after Spirlea and Dragomir there was a pretty lengthy period when there were no Romanians in the top 100 so there was no danger of a Romanian drawing a top 10er at all back then.

Although none of the current crop of Romanians have matched Spirlea or Dragomir in success the depth of women's Romanian tennis these last few years has been unprecedented so that at least is a good thing.